Disclosure:
My usual source for equipment is my checkbook. I buy equipment
just
like you do, and from the same sources (local dealers, B&H Photo,
Adorama, etc.). However, in the case of the Fujifilm S2 Pro, both the
pre-production
and production bodies I used in forming my opinions were part of remuneration
I received from FujiFilm USA for work that I did. That work included
writing
the Quick Start document that now accompanies all US shipments, and materials
used to train Fuji reps. In addition, I made a deal that has Fujifilm
USA providing copies of my Complete
Guide to the Fujifilm S2 Pro as a registration premium to US
purchasers of the camera (see column at right). Thus, unlike my other
reviews, I
have a small conflict of interest here, and I always report and acknowledge
such situations, as I'm doing here. However, that conflict won't keep
me from stating my findings the way I see them. No camera is perfect;
the S2 Pro isn't perfect, either. I've pulled no punches here, nor
has Fuji
seen or had any say in this review.

Is
this the color you're looking for? Despite the nasty things
that Save As JPEG does to an AdobeRGB managed color image, you should
still see that the image at left has a lot of yellow and
green punch to it. This is an undoctored S2 image with only a bit
of Photoshop sharpening added (and since I always work in AdobeRGB
in Photoshop, I've lost just a bit of the color punch through the
sRGB to AdobeRGB conversion). Fujifilm officials talk about making
a camera that is equivalent to Digital Velvia. Guess what? They
might have done just that.

Fujifilm
was one of the early players in the digital SLR game, with the Fujifilm
S1 announced shortly after the launch of the Nikon D1. The appeal of the
S1 was simple: at a time when the D1 was selling for US$5000 or more,
Fujifilm promised the same resolution (or better) and a price almost US$2000
less. Moreover, most S1s were sold in a package that included an IBM Microdrive,
making the price disparity even greater.

Thus, the
Fujifilm S1 became the choice of the digital-ready-but-price-conscious
crowd. A typical reaction for many early S1 users was to praise the color
saturation and sharpness of the S1 as compared to, say, the D1 or Canon
D30, but to damn the camera controls. The N60 body upon which the S1 was
based wasn't a particularly good choice (the N60 body has a host of issues
that we won't go into here--let's just say that getting full control of
what the camera is doing isn't always possible with an N60). Some users
noted that the promised 6-megapixel mode didn't really seem to give you
any advantage over shooting at 3-megapixels and up sizing in Photoshop
to 6-megapixels. The base ISO of 320 also made for some interesting issues,
especially if you wanted to use flash. Still, the Fujifilm S1 produced
very good results if you could get around a few foibles.

The Nikon
D1x and D1h, and the Canon 1D all seemed to pass the S1 by in the latter
half of 2001. The D1x offered more resolution and fixed most of the known
D1 problems and issues. The D1h was a sports-shooter's dream. The 1D split
the middle. [Yes, the 1D shoots a faster frame rate than the D1h, but
I'll contend that a bigger buffer is more useful in almost every sport
I've ever shot.] And that N60 body on the S1 looked more and more like
a very lame choice compared to the buffed and robust bodies Nikon and
Canon produced.

The 2002
PMA (Photo Marketing Association) trade show changed all that. Fujifilm
announced the S2 Pro (based on the N80 body) and claimed the first "12-megapixel"
SLR. The initial pricing indicated that it would sell in the US$3000 range.
But Canon and then Nikon both went into price war mode shortly thereafter
with their introductions of the D60 and D100, respectively. As Canon and
Nikon began shipping their products, Fujifilm slowly regrouped and announced
a price point of US$2400 (street). By summer 2002, we had three SLRs priced
within a few hundred dollars of each other that represented three different
imaging systems. Canon's D60 used Canon's proprietary CMOS. Nikon's D100
used an exclusive Sony chip. And the Fujifilm S2 used a new generation
Fujifilm SuperCCD.

[Note: after
the 2003 PMA introduction of the US$1499 Canon 10D, price pressure
was
put to bear on both the Nikon D100 and the Fujifilm S2 Pro. The former
now has a street price of US$1699 and the S2 Pro can also be found
for under US$2000.]

Since the
body features of all three cameras are remarkably similar, as are the
prices, we're finally looking at our first real "sensor war."
Was Fujifilm's unique approach (see my article on how
CCDs work for more on that) better than the others? Could Fujifilm
compete with Nikon using the same body as a basis for a camera? Was Fujifilm
still in the digital SLR game?

The answer
to those questions are maybe, yes, and yes. But there are plenty of other
questions to be asked and answered, and this review will try to address
them.

From
the front, the N80 (left) and S2 (right) look nearly identical,
with only the extra bulk at the bottom of the camera to give
the
S2
away (well, the model name on the prism is an important clue,
too ;~).

Fujifilm's approach to creating a digital SLR from the Nikon N80 body
differs a bit from Nikon's design for the D100 (also based on the
N80).
Where
Nikon did a lot of subtle body work and tweaked many small things,
Fujifilm essentially left the "camera side" of the S2
Pro unaltered from the N80. Curiously, Fujifilm got some things
right that Nikon got wrong,
and got very few things wrong that Nikon got right. Indeed, I've now
had the chance to share the D100 and S2 bodies with a number of
workshop
students, and it's interesting to see the varied reactions to the two
bodies. Some like the S2 and some like the D100. In almost every
case,
the aspect that wins over the student is something that one company
got right that the other didn't (and is obviously noticed and
important
to the student). I'll try to point some of those things out as I go,
but do go read my D100 review if you haven't
already done so.

From
the front, there's not a lot to distinguish the Fujifilm S2 Pro
and Nikon
D100. After all, they're based upon the same body, and the digital
aspects of the product generally don't show up on the front of the
camera. The
Fujifilm is a little taller than the D100, and the plastic looks a
little more plastic than the Nikon. But that, the logo, and camera
name are
about the only differences.

Flip
the cameras around, however, and the differences are dramatic. Fujifilm's
controls for the digital side of the camera are quite different from
Nikon's, as are the positioning of the color LCD, the card slot, and
a host of other bits and pieces. I'll get to those differences soon,
but for the most part, you interact with the back of the cameras, so
I'll simply point out that whichever one you pick, you'd better like
the back control layout.

As
already noted, the main DNA for the Fujifilm S2 comes from the film-based
Nikon N80. The shutter is the N80's, the viewfinder technology is the
N80's, the autofocus and metering system is the N80's, the camera
control
interface is mostly the N80's (with some modest changes we'll get to),
the internal flash is the N80's, and yes, the general build quality
is much like the N80 (more-so on the S2 Pro than the D100, by the way).
[If you're not familiar with the N80, my review
will get you up to speed quickly.]

I
have a separate page on the site that lists
the primary differences between the D100 and the S2, so if you're interested
in a direct comparison, please go there. For those of you who are thinking
about upgrading from the S1 to the S2, then these differences will be
important to you:

The
S2 can operate without the CR123a battery in the camera and without
a dummy in the CR123a slot. As with the S1, the internal flash is
inoperative if you run the camera only from AA battery power.

The
S2 has a new generation SuperCCD, with 6-megapixels instead of
3-megapixels. The physical size of the CCD is the same (1.5x angle
of view),
and
there's still an option for generating double the number of pixels
in-camera (i.e., produce 12-megapixel JPEGs).

The
change in bodies from the N60 to the N80 produces a host of differences,
all of them beneficial: no features are "embedded"
in exposure modes, you now get five-sensor AF and spot metering, the
top shutter speed is a stop faster, many camera functions can be modified
with custom settings, the viewfinder can display grid lines (which
consumes power, though), AF-S and VR lenses now work as advertised,
and flash operation is vastly improved. Virtually every body gripe
S1 users has been addressed by the change to the N80.

The
base ISO value drops from ISO 320 (on the S1) to ISO 100 (on the
S2 Pro).
This helps with flash use, plus you still have high ISO values available
if you need them.

Plus there's
one important thing that doesn't change:

If
you know how to make digital settings on the S1, you'll find that
the S2 Pro uses the same second LCD and four-button interface you
already know and love.

Need
a book on the S2 Pro?Thom's
written the definitive reference. Order your copy by
clicking on the cover, below*

*
Note: If you purchase an Fujifilm S2 Pro that was officially
imported into the United States and register
online, you will receive a FREE copy of Thom Hogan's Complete
Guide to the Fujifilm FinePix S2 Pro directly from Fujifilm. If you
own a US imported S2 Pro, please don't order the book from me unless you
want a copy immediately or want an extra copy. I will notrefund
your money when you get your book from Fujifilm, nor can I tell you
how
long it will take to get it. Also, because I won't have your name in
my data files, and because I receive so little money per copy from
Fujifilm,
I won't be able to offer updates or replacement disks.

The
Basics

The
Fujifilm S2 Pro has a feature set that sounds almost identical to
the D100
(or any other serious digital or film SLR, for that matter). Indeed,
most of the "camera" features of both are derived from
the N80 body. In appearance the S2 Pro closely resembles the N80,
though careful
observation shows that the curves and lines on the back and bottom
of the camera have been tweaked. The digital controls look and
feel just
like the S1 controls, a benefit to those upgrading from that body.

The
autofocus system is fast, and features five sensors (CAM 900) that can
track rapidly moving objects, or direct autofocus to a specific area
of the frame. Autofocus detection works from EV –1 to EV 19 (specified
at ISO 100). The metering range extends from EV 0 to EV 21, plenty wide
for virtually any shooting you might do. Note that the spot metering
range is slightly lower, from EV 3 to EV 21. Unless you make a habit
of spot metering in unlit situations at night, you're not likely to
encounter that limit.

Shutter
speeds can be controlled in 1/2 stop increments from 30 seconds to 1/4000.
All shutter speeds are handled mechanically on the S2. Indeed, the shutter
sounds pretty much like the N80's in action (a very quiet "clunk"
sound). Single shot and continuous firing at 3 fps is supported, though
I have not found any condition that allows my S2 to achieve the stated
maximum frame rate. The best I've been able to obtain is 2 fps. And
it's relatively easy to (inadvertently) turn on features that would
make motor drive even more leisurely in pace.

The
S2 manages matrix metering the old-fashioned way, with a 10-segment
metering pattern. The
matrix metering also incorporates information about the focus point
you’re using if you’ve mounted a “D-type” lens. Nikon also lists “subject
positioning,” “overall scene brightness,” and “scene contrast” as factors
in the matrix metering calculations. In short, it’s hard to second guess
the camera as there are so many factors being considered. If simplicity
suits you, the spot meter option is a better choice.

(Centerweight
is 60/40 and sees outside the CCD frame size, making it not overly useful.)

As
befitting a serious camera, Fujifilm [Nikon] keeps the mode selection
simple: Program, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and Manual are
the full lineup. Program mode is easily adjusted by spinning one of
the control dials. There's also an automatic adjustment of the program
due to focal length of the lens used; thus there is no “Program High”
or other special automatic modes as there are in some other Nikon bodies.
Like all Nikon bodies, you can override the programming using the rear
command dial, something Nikon calls "Flexible Program."

An
exposure compensation button gives you a +/- 3-stop range in 1/2-stop
steps. A built-in bracketing system allows two or three shots at half-stop
values up to 2 EV apart. Exposure (as well as autofocus) can be locked
by on-camera controls (though this takes some reading of the custom
functions to understand completely). ISO values can be set to 100, 160,
200, 400, 800 or 1600.

Flash
sync works to 1/125 of second. Flash metering uses five TTL sensors
and can be balanced, slow-synced, and synchronized with the rear curtain.

Unlike the Nikon digital SLRs, Fujifilm seems to have made Nikon's
regular TTL system work just fine with the SuperCCD. In other words,
the Fujifilm
S2 Pro can read TTL values by reflections off the CCD during exposure.
The drawback to this is that TTL is only supported to ISO 400 (I
suspect this has something to do with the changes Fuji made to the
TTL
meter reflection readings, as the N80 body supports higher ISO TTL).
Thus, all your old Nikon Speedlights (e.g., SB-24, SB-25, SB-26, SB-28)
work just fine with the S2--you don't need a DX-type Speedlight.
Indeed, it's a joy to be able to use a wireless SB-26 with TTL on
the
S2, something that simply blows away the Nikon digital flash system.

In
the viewfinder, you'll see 95% of the full frame, which means you're
not seeing between 50 and 75 pixels worth of information at every edge
(more if you set 12-megapixels as the size). Shutter speed, aperture,
exposure mode, metering method, focus indicator, exposure compensation,
and flash ready are all visible in the viewfinder, even to eyeglass
wearers like me. Unfortunately, frame counter and/or buffer remaining
indicators, as the D100 has, are not present. One annoying aspect of
the S2's viewfinder is that it is simply a masked N80 viewfinder (the
D100's was altered slightly). That means that the camera information
appears quite far from the image area (i.e., there's a large space between
the two). This takes a bit of adjustment, and it's impossible for me
to pay attention to framing while looking at camera settings (or vice
versa), even though they're both visible at the same time, even with
my glasses on.

On
the color LCD on the back of the camera, you'll see 100% of the image.
Probably of most use on the color LCD is the ability to see a histogram
of any picture you take, allowing you to tinker with exposure to get
every last bit of dynamic range out of the sensor (like slide film,
always expose so that the brightest highlight doesn't blow out--you
can usually recover shadow detail that blocks up, but blown highlights
are obnoxious to the eye and not easily fixable). Fujifilm's color LCD
has a few foibles to note:

Colors
are off. On five different S2 Pro bodies I've seen, I've
seen five slightly different color interpretations. Some were
off subtly, one was quite
blue, another quite reddish in tint. You can't judge color by the
color LCD.

The
protective cover has to be removed to see well.
Get one of Hoodman's solutions if you don't want to be jerking the cover
on and off.

Histograms
are hard to read. First, they're small in size and stuffed into
the right corner of the already small display. Second, there is no differentiation
of color between histogram points and the histogram frame, making it
almost impossible to tell whether you've got a spike at the highlight
end. On the plus side, you can look at histograms for individual colors.

The
color LCD on the back doesn't display a preview of image before you
take the shot (the S2's CCD is blocked by a shutter curtain and mirror,
after all). Frankly, I don't find this to be a drawback at all, and
a bit of a plus (the power-hungry color LCD is only on when you're reviewing
pictures or making camera adjustments). The regular viewfinder is just
fine for determining composition and focus, though the image is a bit
smaller and darker than the N80's.

But...the choices for review
of images are problematic. You can Preview (wrongly named--it
should be called Review and Accept) or Postview (or do it all
manually). In Preview mode, you'd better make sure you hit the Save
button for images you want to keep, else you'll be lamenting using the
setting. In Postview mode, the image briefly flashes on the display,
then disappears while it is being written to the storage card, then
reappears after the write. Compared to the Nikon D1 and D100, this is
annoying, to say the least, especially if your goal is to examine the
histogram (yes, you can do that in Histogram Preview mode, but,
like Preview mode, you must make sure to save images you
want, something that takes a bit of getting used to, and which can be
easily forgotten when shooting in haste).

And
while we're on the subject of the color LCD, one other niggling detail
bothers me: if the camera has gone inactive, you may have to reactivate
the camera to get the color LCD to display something. Pressing any
button should reactivate the camera (Nikon bodies do this, though I've
noted a couple of times when the D100 didn't for reasons I can't explain).

The
Fujifilm S2 takes any Nikon F mount lens (well, lenses earlier than
the AI manual focus Nikkors damage the mount if you try to put them
on the S2, and a few specific lenses won't work on the S2, usually because
they have elements that stick into the mirror box and require mirror
lock-up). Non-CPU lenses don't allow metering and must be used in Manual
exposure mode. When you mount a lens on the S2, the effective focal
length is increased by about 1.5x (e.g., a 20mm lens shows roughly the
same angle of view as a 30mm lens would on a 35mm body [Note: the actual
magnification impact is closer to 1.56x, which is somewhat higher than
the D100, enough so to be visibly apparent with very wide angle lenses.]).
Apertures aren't really affected by this change. Because only the central
portion of the lens is used, if you've been making any exposure adjustments
at maximum aperture to account for light falloff, you should not do
that on an S2. The focal length change has several good points, and
a couple of bad ones:

Free
teleconverter. Your 300mm f/4 lens
just started producing the angle of view of a 450mm f/4 lens! Wildlife
and bird photographers love the extra "oomph" the
S2 gives to their lenses.

Better
optical quality. The fact that only the central area of any lens
is used means that chromatic aberration is lessened, light falloff is
reduced, corners are sharper, and even consumer-oriented lenses (such
as the 18-35mm Nikkor) produce professional-looking
results.

Wide
angle options are limited. The widest rectilinear lens made
is 14mm (though the 12-24mm DX Nikkor now gets you a bit wider),
which produces basically the same results as a 22mm lens when
you mount
it on a S2. Also problematic is that all the 14mm lenses have a significant
tendency towards flare and contrast reduction when light hits
their
pronounced front elements.

Depth
of field judgment isn't quite right. The real key here is that you're
likely to blow up the original image by a greater magnification than
you would with 35mm, so you shouldn't use the 35mm standards, despite
the fact that it may appear that you should (Fujifilm doesn't address
this issue in their documentation or marketing materials; I do in my
book).

The
SuperCCD sensor the S2 Pro uses is currently unique to the S2. It
consists
of a 3024 x 2016 array, and it has massive (compared to the consumer
cameras) photosites. That's just one reason why the S2 can produce
12-bit
RGB images with rich color and low noise. Like virtually all digital
cameras, a filter array is placed over the S2's CCD. This filter
has
three purposes:

Provides
the Bayer pattern.
The Bayer pattern is named after the Kodak engineer who invented it.
On the Fujifilm SuperCCD, this pattern is actually rotated 45 degrees
to produce a set of color filters with an alternating pattern of GGGG...
(on even-numbered rows) and offset RBRB... (on odd-numbered rows)
pixels. The final image is rebuilt by interpolating the actual pixel
values at each position. Fujifilm's odd pattern has a tendency to
produce more horizontal and vertical detail than traditional patterns
of the same size, but this comes at the expense of diagonal resolution.
Some third-party RAW converters have trouble getting the S2's files
rendered without patterns that are obviously CCD layout induced.

Filters
out some infrared. CCDs are sensitive to infrared light, and
to keep infrared energy from biasing colors and exposure, some
(but
not all)
of this light is filtered out. Near infrared response on the S2 Pro
is still quite good.

Provides
a low-pass anti-aliasing filter. Digital
sampling is subject to color fringing (artifacts) when high frequency
detail in a scene approaches that of the sensor pitch.

The S2 Pro
produces several different types of files: JPEG, TIFF, and RAF. The
JPEG options
work as you'd expect, but you pay a small penalty for using that format:
the files are compressed and lose a bit of detail, plus they are converted
to 8-bit format, losing some of the S2's tonal range in the process.
Fujifilm's JPEG engine tends to produce very sharp-looking images,
much more so than
the Nikon D100. TIFF formats are available to prevent the compression
loss, but they, too, produce only 8-bit RGB. The RAF format is the
only
one that retains the full data the S2 is capable of acquiring. Indeed,
the RAF format contains exactly the data that came from the
CCD, with no interpolation or camera processing! Unfortunately, you
need an
extra software program to fully use this format. The camera comes with
an LE version that lets you get files from RAF into your editor,
but the
EX converter (also called Hyper Utility Software [yuck!]) gives you more
control over post-exposure manipulations. As I write this, QImage,
Bibble,
Adobe RAW Converter, and at least one additional software interpolation
program all understand RAF files, and I'm pretty sure we'll see others.
But each seems to render images quite differently, as I noted in the
4th issue of my D1 Report (now Nikon
Digital SLR Report). Only Fujifilm's converter seems to consistently
produce excellent detail and color. Adobe RAW, for example, doesn't
know how to find the S2 Pro's black point and sometimes produces incorrect
results from a RAF file.

In
the US, the S2 Pro comes with an initial set of batteries (4 heavy
duty
alkaline AA, 2 CR123a lithium). You'll want to get at least 1800 mAh
Nimh rechargeable AA batteries and the charger for them. Battery
life
is quite dependent upon a number of factors, and can range from a couple
of hundred shots to a thousand, at least in my observation so far.
Note
that IBM Microdrives use more power than Compact Flash cards, and thus,
exhaust the batteries faster.

But
everything isn't hunky dory in the battery realm. CR123 batteries seem
to have a fairly limited life span in the S2, with 500-1000 exposures
being about average, in my experience (and they discharge even when
the camera is on AC power and even when the camera is OFF!). When they
die the camera goes into what I call a "moping about" mode.
The battery indicators may both indicate low, but the viewfinder display
won't stay lit, and other features start to work sporadically (such
as DOF preview). The camera will continue to mope until you either replace
the CR123a, take the CR123a out and shoot just with the AA, or your
AA go dead. If you shoot without the CR123a in, the battery indicators
no longer are accurate (they'll read low even with fully charged AA's
most of the time) and you lose use of the internal flash.

My
recommendation: go to a warehouse store such as Costco and stock up
on CR123a. The minute the top LCD shows a battery low indicator, pop
the CR123a out and put fresh ones in.

The
camera weighs in at 26.8 ounces, and that's without a lens or the battery,
so it's a lot lighter than the D1, a bit heavier than the D100, but
significantly heavier than the N80.

Handling

The
S1 was often dubbed a man-made monster, and even called a "Frankencamera"
[actually, the Germanic spelling and pronunciation seems more appropriate:
Frankenkamera (FRONK en kom uh rah)]. The S2 still has that separation
of digital and camera shooting controls, but I think now we're learning
that most of the objection to that original S1 design really had something
to do with the body upon which it was built. Frankly [FRONKLY ;-] I
like the separation, and the only issue I see in the separate
nature is that of the battery system.

In
my review of the D100 I called it's aesthetics and build quality that
of a Dodge RAM pickup. The S2 is in that same realm, I think: rugged
and reliable, a bit tough looking, but not overly sophisticated or luxurious
(I'm sure I'll be hearing from the DaimlerChrysler folk with that characterization
;~). The plastic color LCD cover, a few controls, and the door over
the Compact Flash slot all seem a bit "cheap" relative to
the rest of the camera. Little design touches aren't polished: the orange
back light on the digital LCD mismatches the green back light on the
top LCD.

Compared
to the D100, the S2's right hand position is more refined and well thought
out. You can actually hold the camera and shoot with only your right
hand, should the desire strike you (the technique I've memorialized
now as the Galen-Rowell-hanging-off-cliff-while-shooting
position); the D100 doesn't have that feel to it.

Most
camera controls with multiple settings (flash mode, metering mode, exposure
compensation, etc.) are set by holding down the appropriate button and
rotating one of the knurled command dials. Unlike the Nikon digital
cameras, the unique digital controls aren't buried, but appear as a
four-button/LCD combo on the back of the camera. Press the FUNC button,
then press one of the four buttons (the LCD immediately above each shows
the function and current setting) to change a setting. Press the FUNC
button again and you get a different set of digital controls. White
balance, focus area mode, image size, image quality, color, tone, sharpness
and function level are all set this way. ISO, image quality and white
balance use the Mode dial and command dials, and this seems pretty natural
and straightforward. Better still, you can "lock" these settings
so they aren't accidentally changed. The four button + LCD interface
is also used for other things, such as previewing and browsing functions,
while the LCD itself shows camera settings, date and time when not being
used elsewise.

From
a functional standpoint, the four button + LCD interface works flawlessly
and gives you fast access to a number of useful functions. The Fuji
S2 and the Nikon D100 have the same number of "extra" buttons
on their back, but I like the Fuji's layout, consistency, and usability
better. It'll take you all of a few minutes to get used to it, then
it'll become second nature. With the D100, you have to look at the labels
to remember which button does what (and sometimes you'll still scratch
your head in puzzlement).

The
color LCD position is less vulnerable to scratching and nose prints
than the D1, but it's still quite vulnerable, what with it's sticking
out the backside of the camera at a corner. The cheap cover Fuji supplies
is easily scratched, and not completely transparent.

A
lot has been written about the issue of CCD
cleaning. Unlike a film camera, where the photosensitive surface
is replaced every image, the CCD just sits there, shot after shot. In
dusty and dirty environments, you'll end up with some of that ending
up on your CCD (heck, the sealed F5 prism eventually gets dust and grime
in it). The question is, what can you do about it? Well, Fujifilm endorses
the Sensor Swab method. Moreover,
the design of the Fujifilm CCD chamber is better for moving dust off
the CCD imaging area (Nikon's has a frame around the CCD that restricts
swab movement). The S2, thus, is the easiest of my current three digital
bodies (D100, D1x, and S2) to clean.

The
PC Sync, video out, Firewire, USB, and DC in connectors are all on the
left side of the camera, with most behind a rubber door at the bottom.

Changing
custom settings on the Fujifilm S2 is a breeze. Move the mode dial to
CSM, then use the rear command dial to change between CSM numbers and
the front dial to change values. Text for the the current CSM you're working
on is shown on the color LCD. Getting to a CSM and changing it takes mere
seconds, and has none of that repeated button pressing you find on the
Nikon digital bodies. Bravo, Fujifilm.

The menus
on the S2 aren't quite as well done, though. First there's that annoying
camera-has-to-be-active problem I noted earlier. But playback menu design
leaves a lot to be desired. The menus are identified by very cryptic icons
at the bottom of the color LCD. And the items on each menu are
isolated up in the middle of the display, use few words, and use a style
completely different than the Setup menu (which is much better implemented).
At least two of the Fujifilm engineers weren't talking to each other when
they should have been.

Showing
image quality on the Web is problematic. Either we suffer the degradation
of JPEG, or we need lots of bandwidth to allow users to download and evaluate
TIFF images (and that's assuming that you've color calibrated your monitor
and maintain proper color spaces). Since I'm already running near capacity
on bandwidth, I choose not to show high resolution images and will simply
describe what I see. I suggest that if you want to see specific images,
you should hop on over to DPReview and
look at Phil Askey's very thorough image quality sections in his reviews
(which also allow you to get to the original file should you want to examine
more closely). One word of caution: Phil only tests at default
settings, so his tests almost never show the best possible image
quality a camera is capable of. Nevertheless, they do show what the out-of-box
quality is likely to be. Care with settings will get you better quality
every time, though.

So,
that said, what about image quality, Thom?

JPEG
Compared to the Nikon D100 at the same size, the S2 Pro's output is very
sharp, and the colors tend to have a bit of Fujifilm exaggeration
to them
(think
a mild
Velvia
effect). Greens have more yellow in them than the slightly magenta-ish
Nikon rendering, but skin tones tend to be too warm. With proper
setting
of the Color and Tone controls, you can get close to a neutral rendering,
but Nikon's AdobeRGB setting on the D100 is better if you want fully
neutral and accurate
color. Moiré is something you have to watch for in fine detail
on the S2 Pro, but not nearly as out of hand as some seem to suggest.
The JPEG engine
generates more compression artifacts in aggressive settings than does
the D100, but still far fewer than you'd find on consumer cameras. The
12-megapixel resizing done in camera is quite good--slightly better than
doing a straight 2x enlargement in Photoshop--but artifacts are a bit
more of a problem, too.

RAF
You
have a bit more ability to generate color neutral results with RAF files
(the Fuji Hyper Utility Software allows you to save out to AdobeRGB,
for example), though you still need to watch those Color and Tone settings
carefully lest you sneak in some unwanted saturation and drift. Image
quality was slightly disappointing, but that was probably my raised expectations
(if
JPEG looks better out of camera than on a D100, shouldn't RAF look better
than NEF rather than merely equal?). Still, the 12-bit data and full
post-exposure
control over important variables gives you much subtler results than
JPEG, and some may find Fujifilm's white balance wheel in their converter
easier to understand than Nikon's
pop-up and slider interface. All in all, pulling up RAF and NEF files
shot side by side at recent workshops, I'd be really nit-picking if
I
were to try to describe any differences between the two. In short, you
get 6-megapixel files that are state-of-the-art; if you can't produce
superb 11x17" prints from a RAF file, you're doing something wrong.
Like JPEG, the Fujifilm software allows for 12-megapixel images produced
directly from the RAF file. I've been continually surprised at how much
detail can be pulled out of a RAF file, indeed, a bit more than out of
a D1x or D100.

NOISE
Wow
it's low (I can generate gray ramp files from the camera with most standard
deviations near 1). Assuming you've avoided moiré and got your
exposure correct, the S2 produces about the same low level of noise
in
detail-less areas of JPEGs as the D100, and visibly less noise in RAF
files than the D100 produces in NEF files. But...get the exposure a bit
wrong
(or
use too much Curve correction after the fact) and you might see a bit
of obnoxiously patterned noise in the shadow areas. Noise on the S2
Pro is also significantly
higher on long exposures than it is on the D100 with noise reduction
ON, though my body does not seem at all prone to hot pixels on long exposures
(I've taken 5 minute exposures that haven't had more than a half dozen
hot pixels that needed fixing).

DYNAMIC
RANGE I
see 7 stops of dynamic range on a perfectly executed RAF file; anything
more and you'll start to bring up noise in the shadows. Fujifilm's
histogram implementation and half-stop settings unfortunately don't
help you
get your highlight
detail
slammed against the white ceiling. Moreover, Fuji's 252,252,252 maximum
value clips an eensy bit of range, though does tend to protect you from
highlight color shift when you color correct after the fact. Still,
a very good performance.

OVERALL
In
a word: excellent. Color accuracy is probably the weakest point, but even
there it's possible to get neutral color out of the camera. You have to
work to get it though, as Fujifilm's default preferences seem to be for
the type of color saturation we've seen in their films over the years.

Dynamic
range on the S2 is as good as any CCD-based camera. Here I couldn't
really
use a graduated neutral density filter because it would show up as lines
in the Snake River morning fog, so this is a real stretch of what the
camera can do. The telling part is the detail in the shadow area at the
far edge of the river--it's there, yet highlight detail has been held
in both the fog and the snow on the Tetons. But note how the sky is a
bit too cyan, a typical problem (I find myself adding +2 red +2 yellow
on almost every S2 Pro sky rendering).

Exposure

While
S2 users don't seem to be complaining about "underexposure"
as much as D100 users, exposure is still a fairly common complaint amongst
S2 users. A lot of this is user misunderstanding, but some is the way
the Nikon matrix and center-weight metering systems work.

The
matrix system tends to produce underexposure in high contrast situations,
period, though the Fujifilm S2 seems to have a slight tendency towards
a hotter exposure than the N80 and D100 in the same high contrast scene.
When you shoot print film, you don't see the matrix "miss,"
as it's usually minor and the automated print equipment at your lab simply
"fixes" it. With slide film and digital, what you get is what
the meter sees, which is often an average of a dynamic range outside the
ability of the film or CCD. And on both the D100 and S2, it seems as if
the averaging tends to be a little low (probably to preserve highlight
detail).

Centerweighted
metering is also problematic on the S2, in my opinion. First, there's
the fact that it is a 60/40 ratio (the pro Nikon bodies use 75/25, which
is a better choice). But that 40% portion also sees some area outside
the CCD frame! Thus, if you're not paying attention, white walls or black
tuxedos just outside the CCD frame can really play havoc on the exposure
values the camera sets.

But
my biggest problem with the Fujifilm S2 falls back on those histograms.
Curiously, the manual uses black and gray to distinguish histogram information
from the histogram frame! If only Fujifilm had done the same on the color
LCD. It's nearly impossible to tell how close you've pushed the highlight
detail up towards the maximum, meaning that you tend to back the exposure
off a bit just to be sure.

Ironically,
the spot meters in both S2 bodies I've used tended to be about one-third
stop off on the overexposure side. That's within the ANSI tolerance for
meters, but it does go to show you need to run tests on your equipment
to make sure you know what it thinks middle gray is.

One
of the things I like about the S2 is its ability to do very good in-camera
black and white. Note I said very good, not excellent. The S2's black
and white isn't perfect, just good enough to use in a pinch with no
post-production. Since Ansel Adams was the ultimate B&W nature
shooter, I decided to mimic him at one of his famous spots. The trees
have grown since Ansel was there, making the S bend in the river no
longer visible, but fortunately the morning fog filled in for me here.
This small version doesn't do the original file justice, though, since
I've had to bump up the sharpening to see the detail at this size.
And despite the contrast, the exposure meter was spot on.

I
should note that when my S2 Pro came back from repair (see below),
it was exposing differently. I now find that the camera routinely
wants to expose a stop more than it did before (yes, I have a standard
set up to measure this). Personally, I liked it the way it was,
though adjusting to this new exposure level hasn't been a big issue
for me, since I simply set the exposure compensation value to -1EV,
something I tend to do with my D100 and D1x, as well. I've heard
from others who've had the same repair as I did (PC board swap),
and
they've
had similar
stories. This doesn't speak highly of quality control, but I will
say that Fujifilm handled the repair quickly, efficiently, and
professionally. Moreover, the camera had clearly been well cleaned
after repair, something that doesn't always happen at Nikon.

Autofocus

I've
seen posts that claim the S2 and D100 have faster autofocus than the
N80. They don't. The D100 does have different default settings, which
affects performance, but the S2 defaults are the same as the N80, and,
as far as I can tell, the autofocus action is exactly the same. If you
use dynamic autofocus, turn off Closest Subject Priority to get better
autofocus in low light.

Using
the central autofocus sensor only, the S2 is as fast at autofocus as
any Nikon body. AF-S lenses "snap" to focus using the central
sensor. The only times you'll see a difference between the S2 and the
D1 series is in low light and off center subjects.

Fuji
uses a slightly different autofocus sensor pad than the N80 (feels a
bit more like the F5 pad than the N80 pad). It's nowhere near as stiff
as the Nintendo pad the D100 uses, and the location is not burdened
by nearby ridges or controls.

S1
users will be happy to know that AF-S lenses work as designed on the
S2, with blindingly fast and silent autofocus.

Drawbacks

It's
not a D1. If you need fast flash sync, fast motor drive, brick-like
durability, or a larger buffer size, a D1h or D1x is what you want.

Battery
madness. The dual-battery nature of the S2 is a bit of a drag.
Yes, you can operate the camera from Nimh AA's only. But if you do,
you lose use of the internal flash. If you add CR123s in the grip
to power the flash, you have to watch carefully for the point where
the CR123s no longer power the camera--the battery displays aren't
unequivocal in telling you when they are exhausted.

Manual
lenses don't meter. AI and AI-S lenses and accessories can
only be used in Manual exposure mode, and the meter is inoperative.

Shot
review issues. In
the preferred Postview mode, the image flashes on the screen
for only a second or two, then disappears while it is being written
to the card, only to reappear again. An amateurish implementation, at
best. And the critical histogram information can't be distinguished
due to the width and color of the histogram box. One only has to compare
Nikon's clear histogram view against Fujifilm's smaller, unclear view
to understand the difference. (Fujifilm does get a bonus point for allowing
us to look at individual channels, but that bonus point doesn't go far
when you can't always tell whether the highlight is blown out or you're
looking at the right-hand edge of the box. Tsk, tsk.)

Software
immaturity and design. Finepix
Viewer is adequate, but not particularly well featured. The Raw interpreters
are slow and somewhat crude compared to, say, Nikon Capture (though
they do a fine job of interpolating raw images). In particular, the
inability to pick a file name and location for saving is a big, big
liability. Tethered camera control is also a bit immature compared to
the competitors. And all of the supplied software could use a better
grounding in Mac and Windows interface standards.

Positives

While
I wouldn't take my drawbacks lightly, they are minor compared to
the
pluses. The S2 takes beautiful, color-saturated photos and when used
correctly can give any digital SLR on the market (as of August
2003) a run
for
the
money. Yes, that means the Canon 1Ds and Kodak Pro 14n, as well. The
S2 Pro loses a small bit in the resolution race, but not nearly as
much as you might think. We may quibble about slight differences
in color, or noise, or aliasing between
these the 1Ds, Pro 14n, and S2 Pro,
but these
discussions
are
not a lot different
than the Provia versus Ektachrome type of debate we used to have with
film. In short, expect to produce darn good results out of this camera.

State-of-the-art
image quality.
Yes, I'm sure there are cameras with more resolution headed our
way. But until
they arrive, the S2 Pro can give anything on the market a run for the
money. If you shoot JPEGs and need to avoid post-production workflow,
I'm confident
that the S2 is the best choice currently available, though you need
to watch for moiré. If you shoot raw formats, the S2 Pro
holds its own with the D100 and D1x, though the Fujifilm software
is a bit more
ragged than Nikon Capture. Indeed, the S2 holds up just as well against
the Kodak Pro 14n and Canon 1Ds, both full-frame, high-resolution
digital
bodies.

Built-in
film stocks. The color controls on the Fujifilm give you the
option of shooting with very saturated color (ala Velvia), slightly
exaggerated
color (Provia), or neutral color (Aptia). While Nikon's models also
give you color control, they do so in a graphic artist type of
way (changing
hue through the color wheel), Fujifilm's design gives you more of what
you're probably looking for. If you want to make reds and greens
pop,
you can press a button on the S2 Pro and get it.

Well
sized,
very comfortable, fast in operation. The S2 Pro is a bit
bigger than the D100, but it's easier to hold steady with one
hand
due to the plastic
molding on the right side of the camera back. And the four-button control
center lets you change (and lock!) the digital controls very,
very rapidly.

The
return of Nikon's normal TTL. Since
the S2 Pro measures TTL flash during exposure, the results are
generally
more reliable than those on a D1 or D100. Moreover, wireless flash
works with Standard TTL!

Custom
Settings done the right way. Nikon,
are you listening? This is the way custom settings should be
implemented. Fast. Consistent with the rest of the interface design.
Plenty of words to indicate what you're setting.

Easier
to clean CCD. Not
only does Fujifilm endorse use of the Sensor Swab method of cleaning,
but the CCD isn't buried inside a restrictive bracket like the Nikon
models are. That means you can actually get a swab off the CCD area
and don't leave little dust bunnies on the frame edge, as sometimes
happens with a D1 or D100.

S2 Summary

A
big step forward from the S1 model, and a very competitive digital
SLR.

Features:

Reliability:

In
the field:

Value:

Bottom
line: If you want a 6-megapixel, Nikon-based SLR, you'll have
a tough time choosing between the Fuji S2 and the Nikon D100.
Look very carefully at the differences. There may be one that
pushes you towards one camera or the other. If you're coming form
an S1, don't even think: run out and get the S2.

Update

I've
gone back and again made many subtle changes to the review to bring
it up
to date, but a couple of things needed more highlighting than would have
been noticed within the body of the review:

My
S2 died. Well,
perhaps "died" is too strong a word, but it stopped
taking usable pictures. In the middle of one workshop the camera
suddenly began
writing strange green lines across high resolution images (the lines
seemed to disappear when the camera was set to render low resolution
JPEG files [see image at right]). Fujifilm fixed the camera quickly,
replacing the main digital PC board (the part that does all the
hard work with the data from the sensor). One immediately noticed
change was that the camera now exposed more like my D100 and
D1x and typically needed to be set to -1EV to keep highlights
from blowing out (which, of course, then necessitates using a
Curve in Photoshop to bring the shadows back up). Noise, if anything,
seems even lower than the original! Indeed, until about ISO 800
noise levels stay very low on this camera. Color also seems a
bit more accurate, though I still see the dreaded cyan in skies
and still run a Photoshop Action to correct that on almost every
outdoor image I shoot with the camera. I'm still amazed at the
image quality you can wring out of this camera, though I'm now
concerned about its reliability (and that's reflected in
my ratings, above).

Fujifilm
needs a software guru and complete re-do. Even
with the welcome new features of the 2.0 update to the EX Raw converter,
Fujifilm's software lags so far behind the current state of the art
that it is embarrassing. Finepix Viewer barely holds its own against
trivial shareware products. Macintosh users, in particular, suffer,
though at least OS-X is now supported. Software performance (rendering
speed, etc.) is noticeably slower than the alternatives.
Still, underneath the ugly surface, Fujifilm's raw converter does a
much better job than any of the other available tools. I suspect
we have engineers slapping some code on base routines to create
the software, not user interface designers polishing user
procedures and UI.

Workflow
suffers. Partly
because the Fujifilm software is so poorly designed, and partly
because Fujifilm
apparently hasn't shared enough RAW format and EXIF details with third
parties, workflow for an S2 user isn't anywhere near what we have
for
the D1/D100
(or even the Canon models, which also come with somewhat poor software
but at least have better alternatives available due to Canon's
widespread distribution of a SDKs). Adobe RAW Converter
is fast and makes for nice workflow with the S2 Pro, but it often
renders detail poorly
and
gets color temperature, and thus colors, wrong more often than
not. QImage renders beautifully, but
is a pain in the butt to figure out how to use. Bibble isn't accurate
in color, detail, or white balance. But don't laugh because you're
shooting
JPEG images. Getting moire out of your JPEG image is going to take
a third-party tool that might not get it all (if we knew how
Fujifilm
was rendering the JPEG, we could code an S2-aware tool to automate
the process or removing moire).

If
you've read my review and update, you're probably thinking
that I'm not as positive about the S2 Pro as I was before. Yes and
no.
While it is true that I use my S2 Pro less than my workhorse D1x, for
the right image (hint: think skin tone or greens) the S2 Pro is my
camera
of choice. What bothers me more as time goes on is the software side
of the equation. I've watched Nikon iterate View and Capture into relatively
mature, fully color managed, useful applications that accommodate reasonable
workflow and have decent performance (even on the Macintosh, which
was
Nikon's liability before). I've seen third-party software, such as DigitalPro
and Capture One DSLR show up even Nikon's now respectable workflow.
Meanwhile,
Fujifilm's software is not only not iterating as quickly, but it still
gets too much in the way of a smooth workflow. It's time for Fujifilm
to make a decision: whip the software into shape or give out the proprietary
details so that others can do so.

And,
of course, I'm now concerned about reliability. Astute readers
will have noticed that I had a question mark next to my reliability rating
in the original review. That question mark is gone now. My experience
with the S2 Pro as compared to my multiple Nikon bodies (none of which
have failed me yet, knock wood) forces me to give the S2 Pro a lower
rating
here than the D100 or D1x I also use regularly. And I don't think I'm
alone. I hear more from S2 Pro users about camera failures than I do
from D100 users (given unit volume and the fact that I've sold more
D100 books than S2 Pro books, I'd expect the opposite).

Still,
every time I pick the S2 Pro up and shoot, I produce very nice images,
with detail and color (with a bit of extra processing) that is excellent.
If you shoot JPEG, the S2 Pro is a better camera than the D100 for
only a few extra dollars. If you shoot RAW, the Nikon D1x and Kodak
Pro
14n
are other cameras you
should
consider,
but the S2 Pro holds its own quite well and costs considerably less.
The price you pay for using an S2 Pro over a D1x or Pro 14n comes in
the post-processing software. It's slower and more difficult to use.

Yep,
that's my usual (white background) resolution chart I supply with the
eBook shot right after my S2 Pro started acting up. Apparently the camera
thought it was the Incredible Hulk, as it decided to puff up green.